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How Long Can the House of Saud Last?

(National Post-Canada) Editorial - As the West applies greater scrutiny to Saudi Arabia, it is becoming clear that the Saudi royal family's grip on their country may be weakening. While the recent departure of U.S. troops will no doubt please radical Islamists, the continued popularity of bin Laden shows religious and political disaffection is rife. In the pre-9/11 days, the thought of the West's oil caretakers being thrown from power would have caused shrieks of alarm in Western capitals. And even now, it seems possible that whatever local cabal might wrest power from the House of Saud would simply provide its subjects with a different, and perhaps more unstable, flavor of bigotry and dictatorship. But plainly, it is time for the West to start thinking soberly about what will follow when the House of Saud collapses under the weight of its own corruption. That eventuality no longer qualifies as something Western governments should only dread, but also as a chance to bring much needed change to a hateful regime.
2003-09-22 00:00:00
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